Down the Rabbit Hole
by x.x.LoveThatLasts.x.x
Summary: Bella Swan has recently been released from California State Asylum and has been sent to live with her father and his new wife. Haunted by her past, she attempts to begin a new life in Forks, but sometimes new beginnings are difficult to come by
1. Chapter 1

Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter One

I have recently been released from the California State Asylum after completing my rehabilitation program. Mom is making me move away to live with Dad. She says the Washington air will do good things for me, but I think she's just trying to get rid of me. She doesn't want me around messing things up for husband number three and their toddler twins. I'm _unstable_, she still believes, though the doctors swear I'm better now.

I had tried to kill myself. That's what got me sent away to CSA, and I almost completed it if Mom hadn't walked in. She wasn't supposed to be home for another two hours, but her last appointment was canceled, and she got back early. Everyone has to ask: now what would drive an honors student with a 4.0 GPA and high SAT score to do something so horrific as trying to off herself? Simple. Daniel.

I'm not one of those psychos who do crazy things because a boy broke her heart. Not at all. But I am one of those psychos who can't live with herself after what she suffered for three, grueling years. It was stupid that I didn't get out of the relationship when it first started going South. Daniel had too much influence and control over me. Lucky, Daniel got off scott free, though. He wasn't charged with anything, even when I told the police my story. No one believed a suicidal teenage girl over a popular, lawyer's son because hey, if abuse really was happening, wouldn't I have come out with it sooner rather than three years later when I was in some deep trouble? Daniel got to play the victim in this scenario after I almost crashed a car with him in it. He told people he was trying to break up with me, and in a panic of losing him, I tried to crash the car. That my story of abuse was bogus, and I was just trying not to get charged with attempted murder. Want to know the truth? It was raining. I was driving Daniel home after one of his baseball games, and he was yelling at me, mad about something. Then he hit me, _hard_. I could hear the bones in my nose cracking when his fist collided with my flesh. It was excruciating, and I swerved off the highway, attempting to pull to a stop. The car skidded off the wet pavement, and I accidentally hit the gas instead of the break. This is going to sound sick, I know, but for the briefest second I imagined Daniel flying through the windshield, crashing through the glass, out on the road, and under my tires. It's crazy, I know, but it's what I imagined instead of having the whole life-flashing-before-your-eyes experience.

Don't ask why I put up with his abuse for three years, because I really don't know myself. It's something I've been trying to figure out my past year at CSA, and it wasn't really something I could talk about with my psychiatrist. She still believed I was delusional with my story of Daniel's abuse. It's sick how much power a well-known lawyer and his son can have. I mean, Daniel's dad was the one who paid for my stay at CSA.

"Isabella? Bella! They're calling your flight." My mother shakes my shoulder hard and pulls me from my reverie. She hands me my small carry-on, and we stand. "I love you, Bella," she says, hugging me. "Try to have a nice time in Forks with your father." It's as if I'm being sent off on vacation, not being exiled to the middle of nowhere.

"I'll try," I mumble, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.

"I'll see you soon," Mom calls as I walk to the terminal. I turn to wave, and she blows a kiss. _I'll see you soon_. It's as if I'll be back in a week or two.

Once the plane's lift from the ground and the seat belt sign goes off, I plug in my headphones and close my eyes, attempting to sleep for the flight. I'm going to need my rest; it's going to be an interesting reunion with my dad after so many years and under this condition. But at least, maybe, I'll get to start fresh. Start my senior year, get into college, and not have to worry about Daniel's presence or any boy for that matter. Maybe the nightmares will even go away, too. It'll be good, hopefully, with no one looking at me like I'm some kind of delusional, circus freak. Just as long as Dad hasn't told anyone the truth about why I'm being forced to move with him. Then everything will be okay.

_"You're a bitch! No one can ever love someone like you, Bella!" Daniel slaps me across the face, and my cheek burns red. My head hurts, and I can't make a sound. "What's your problem? You know I don't want you going off anywhere! You're only allowed to go out with me!"_

_ "But she's my friend," I whisper, and instantly regret it. I receive another blow to my face._

_ Daniel grabs a fistful of my hair. "You. Are. Mine." His breath smells like smoke and beer, and spittle lands on my face. _

_ Tears start to slip from the corner of my eyes from the throbbing in my head. Everything is spinning and black spots dance across my vision. _

_ Daniel's hand softens in my hair, and he pulls me to his chest. I flinch as he wraps his arms around my waist and kisses the top of my head. "I'm so sorry, Bella, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I love you." _

_ I soak his shirt with my tears. _

"It's great to see you, Bella!" Dad reaches out to give me a hug, and I flinch away. Worry clouds his eyes.

"It's good to see you, too." I awkwardly pull at my shirt. I don't like to be touched by men. _But he's your dad_, my subconscious chastises.

"I'm so glad you've decided to come stay with me." It's as if I had a choice. "Ashley and I have been preparing your room this past week, and she really wanted to be here with me to come get you. But she got called into work earlier." Ashley is Dad's wife; I only met her once at their wedding six years ago. From what I remember she's a really nice lady, and they wanted to have a baby, but they're unable to conceive.

"Oh, that's okay. You didn't really have to prepare anything for me," I say, pulling my luggage from the carousel.

"That's it?" Dad asks, and I nod. He takes the duffel bag from me and directs me out the doors and towards the car. "It's not trouble," he says. "Ashley went all out for this. She's really excited that you're staying with us."

I nod. We remain in a respectable silence the rest of the way to Dad's house.

**** Please review and let me know if I should continue with this story! I'm just toying around with a few ideas in my head right now, and I need to know if this is worth continuing. (Keep in mind I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet!) If I get enough positive reviews, I'll try to have another chapter posted up soon! ****


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I wake up to the sound of rain cascading down my window, and it's so soothing that I don't want to move. It's the second day in a row that I've woken up to rain. It makes me wonder what happened in this town that causes the world to want to cry over it so much because in a way, rain is the world's way of crying.

It's Monday, which means my first day at Forks high. My stomach clenches at the thought of having to go to a new school and start all over again. I haven't been to school with other people my age in what feels like a long time. At CSA, we had kind of like a home school program, but everyone worked on their own in the library so that we didn't' have to socialize if we didn't want to. Then my stomach takes a double flip when I try to recall what normal school is like. _What if Daniel's there?_ No, I push that thought back. It's impossible because he's thousands of miles away from me, and he can't have known where I went.

"_I won't ever let you leave me. No matter where you go I will find you. You're mine, and I'd kill you before I'd let anyone else touch you," Daniel whispers in my ear after making love to me. _

_I don't know how to take that so I just force smile and close my eyes. He has to mean it in a good way, right? It has to be a good thing for him to feel that protective over me. _

I shiver, brushing away the memory of what he said a few months before the whole incident. He can't find me way out here in the middle of nowhere. I have nothing to worry about. This is my fresh start. No one knows about anything here.

Once I'm dressed and my bag is packed, I head down stairs to the smell of pancakes and warm syrup and coffee. Ashley's in the kitchen, already dressed in her scrubs and Dad's at the table reading the morning paper.

"Morning, hun," Ashley says brightly, flipping a pancake over in the pan. "Did you sleep alright?"

"Yeah, I did." I take a big whiff of the food as I sit down. "Something smells really good."

"Pancakes. You like them?" She tucks a stand of hair behind her ear, and Dad looks up at her, smiling, as she waves the battered spatula around. I've never seen Dad this happy before.

"Of course," I say. She sets a plate down in front of me along with a cup of warm syrup. The cup burns my fingertips as I pick it up and drench my pancakes in the sweet, sticky liquid.

Ashley sets down another plate for herself and another, stacked with even more pancakes for Dad. She takes a seat beside me, and Dad folds his paper down. We eat in silence for a few seconds before conversation begins to pick up again.

"So are you ready for your first day, Bells?" Dad asks, shoveling a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.

"Yeah, I guess so," I say, and he grunts in acknowledgment around his food.

Ashley laughs, "Excuse your father's manners. At least he's not talking with food in his mouth!" She has a really pretty laugh. "And I'm guessing you're as ready as you'll ever be for school, huh?"

I nod, grateful she understands. "Yeah, I mean in a way it's great to start fresh, you know?"

She smiles. "That's always nice. I wish I could have done that towards the end of my high school career. That'd been great!" A look crosses her face as if she thinks it might have been something wrong to say.

I wonder what she thinks about everything that happened to me. Does she know the whole story? Would she believe me if I told her the truth? Would she be on my side or think I'm crazy just like everyone else does?

I shove a forkful of food in my mouth and nod.

After Ashley drops me off at school, a boy named Henry directs me to the front office so I can get my schedule. Henry's overly nice and decides to follow me to the front to make sure I get there alright, despite the fact that he gave me very detailed directions.

"So you're names Bella?" he asks, bouncing as he walks next to me.

"Yeah, Bella Swan."

"New here, too, huh? Swan? Wait, you're the fire chief's daughter, aren't you?"

"Uhm, yeah. I am."

"That is so cool! It's really great to meet you, Bella! We need to catch up later today. Maybe at lunch. You can sit with me and my friends. Sound good?"

"I'll try to catch up with you then," I say, heading into the office. If I even make it to lunch or the cafeteria, at that.

I turn my papers in to the lady at the front desk, and she chats about the weather and how I'm liking it here so far. She notices I'm from California and asks about the huge differences between the two, and all the while I'm waiting for her to just finish and give me my schedule so I can get on with my day.

"And are you going to need someone to show you around or do you think you can figure it out yourself?" The lady asks, finally passing over my schedule.

Before I can answer, a raven-haired girl bursts in the office, wind whipping the papers around the office and on the bulletin boards. "Mrs. Nancy! I am so sorry I'm late today! I had to help my mom around the house with some things this morning, and I just lost track of time!" The girl glides over to the other side of the desk and sets her bag down. "What do you need me to do?"

"Alice! Just in time!" Mrs. Nancy says, clapping her hands together in delight. She obviously has a real fondness for this Alice girl. "This is Ms. Isabella Swan, and she needs to be shown around to her classes today. Do you think you can do that?"

Alice turns and gives me a dazzlingly white smile that leaves me slightly stunned. "Of course, I'd love to! And is that all you'll need me to do?"

"Yes, that is." Mrs. Nancy turns to me. "Isabella, this is Alice Cullen."

I go to correct her on my name, but Alice takes my hand and says, "Bella, it's so great to meet you! I've heard so much about you from my father who works closely with Ashley, your dad's wife." There's a slight twinkle in her eye as if she knows more about me than she's actually saying. Ice-cold fear trails down my spine: _does she know? _No, no. She can't know. Ashley wouldn't have said anything about my past to anyone. She wouldn't do something like that to me.

"Come on, Bella." She grabs my hand in one hand and takes my schedule in her other. "Oh! You have a few classes with my siblings! You're going to love them!" She skips, tugging me along with her with such a force that I stumble a little before catching my footing. For being so small, she's very strong. "This is so exciting," she gushes.

"What is?" I ask, following her into a large, white building.

She glances at me from the corner of her eyes and smiles as if she has a secret she's not telling me. "Well, having someone new in town, of course! Do you know how rare it is to get a new person around here? My brothers and sisters and I were the last new kids about a year ago!"

She guides me along through the hallways, passing many classrooms and lockers and staring eyes. The hair on the back of my neck prickles when I notice all the eyes on me. _Nobody knows,_ I remind myself. _They're just interested in the new girl._

"And this here's your locker!" She says, stopping short, which is bad to do with a klutz like me.

In that second, I stopped short, curving back around to see where Alice was pointing, and in that sudden stop, I managed to collide with the rock-solid chest of a boy who was following to closely behind me. He catches me by the shoulders before I completely topple over, and I glance up into his warm, golden eyes to thank him. _He's a God_, I think, my face flushing with embarrassment. Beautiful, tussled auburn hair and a sharp jaw line and—_oh!—_he scrunches his nose up and his eyes flash black, before immediately releasing my arms as if I were something contagious. Then he's gone just like that.

"I'm so sorry, Bella!" Alice says, hurrying to my side. _What is she apologizing about?_

"Who was that?" I breathe, turning back to Alice.

She smiles and shrugs, "That's my brother. Edward." She hesitates, licking her lips. "He's a little moody in the mornings."

***Hope you enjoy chapter two! Review and let me know what you think!*******


	3. Untitled Insert

Hi guys!

I just wanted to let you know that if you have really enjoyed my writing, I have published a new book! You can order a copy from amazon! Just search my name: Emily Elizabeth Bissel and my book is entitled Harvesting Hearts.

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I would post the links to make it easier for you guys, but it won't allow me to do that!

Please help support my writing!

I really hope y'all have enjoyed my fanfiction stories. All of your support and critiques have helped inspire me to finally publish my book! I was always afraid my writing wasn't good enough, but now I am confident in it because of all the great feedback you guys have given!

I'm really sorry if I disappointed you guys in thinking this was another story post! But please check out more of my writing showcased in my book, Harvesting Hearts!

Now that I've completed this book and it's publication, I should have time to write more fanfiction for you guys to read!

I love you guys! Thank you for all your support! I hope you have enjoyed my writing!

Sincerely yours,

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